FACTBOX - Facts on Cyprus election

(Reuters) - Following are some key facts on the Cyprus presidential election, scheduled for February 17 and, if no clear winner emerges, expected to move to a runoff on February 24:

CANDIDATES - Nine candidates, including incumbent Tassos Papadopoulos, seeking a five-year term.

WHAT THE POLLS SAY - Polls suggest a dead heat between Papadopoulos, communist challenger Demetris Christofias and right-wing backed independent Ioannis Kassoulides, with neither mustering the requisite 50 percent plus one in the first round.

ELECTORATE - Some 515,000 Greek Cypriots eligible to vote. Under Cyprus's constitution, the island has a Greek Cypriot President, and a Turkish Cypriot Vice President. The vice-president spot has been empty since 1963, when a power-sharing administration crumbled in violence.

KEY ISSUES - Cyprus's division dominates island politics. The island has been divided since a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup. The winner of the election is mandated, as Greek Cypriot leader, to negotiate reunification with Turkish Cypriots. Papadopoulos led Greek Cypriot rejection of a United Nations reunification blueprint in 2004, a week before the island joined the European Union divided, and effectively represented only by one side.

The division of the island obstructs Turkish membership of the European Union, with Brussels freezing several negotiation chapters with Ankara at the insistence of the Greek Cypriots, and because of the ongoing stalemate on the island.

(Writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Caroline Drees)